Henin-Hardenne Seizes Moment, and the Day

Amidst the drone of backhands and forehands, great tennis players find their moments. And when they do, as Justine Henin-Hardenne did Thursday in a women’s quarterfinal at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, it can be both fleeting and revealing.

Henin-Hardenne, the Belgian who currently has a stranglehold on the No. 1 ranking in the world, made her way into the semifinals, opposite Anastasia Myskina of Russia. She did so by beating another Russian, 18-year-old Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-4, 7-5. Myskina eliminated veteran Conchita Martinez of Spain in the day’s other quarterfinal, 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-3.

Henin-Hardenne’s straight-set outcome looked fairly predictable, an expected answer to the only woman to beat her this year. But until Henin-Hardenne found her moment, there was a chance that Kuznetsova might beat her again.

Henin-Hardenne had won the first four games and was playing the kind of airtight tennis that has quickly separated her from the rest of women’s tennis.

“I started the match unbelievably,” she said. “I was aggressive. The first game, I was already at the net.”

But Kuznetsova hasn’t climbed to No. 14 in the world for no reason. And once she settled her nerves, she started going toe-to-toe with Henin-Hardenne and, suddenly, the top-seeded star was serving at 5-4, love-30, and looking like the second-best player on the court.

Henin-Hardenne, knowing that love-40 and three break points would probably turn the match around, and sensing that she might come out second best in a slugging match, seized the next point to stop the bleeding. She served, then took Kuznetsova’s return and sliced a soft reply short and to her opponent’s left. Kuznetsova dashed in to retrieve it, stabbed a backhand back and found herself at the net, watching helplessly as Henin-Hardenne sent a forehand crosscourt for a winning passing shot.

Henin-Hardenne, who followed with a net approach and winning volley and held serve to win the set, had yanked her opponent forward and passed her, handling Kuznetsova as though she were a yo-yo on a string. Perfect strategy at the perfect moment, in a perfect display of why she is No. 1.

“Mentally, I think we are all playing good tennis, I mean, in the top 20,” Henin-Hardenne said. “But the mental part is probably the most important, playing well on the important points, just taking the responsibilities when you have to. It’s a big difference, huge difference.”

There was a huge difference between that match and the victory that put Myskina in the semifinals. (The other semifinal will match Lindsay Davenport and Nathalie Dechy of France. Both will be today.)

The Myskina victory took 2 hours 17 minutes, but it seemed longer.

Martinez, 31, is a crafty veteran who won Wimbledon 10 years ago. She doesn’t have a style of play. She has five. Or maybe six. She slices and bangs and hits moon balls and takes pace off her changeups. Her serve doesn’t bounce, it kind of slides sideways. Whether or not she wins, she always manages to torture her opponent.

When the match began, the Stadium Court was perhaps one-third full. When it ended, all but a handful of people, presumably family and friends, had departed.

Myskina went out on the court to play as a fresh, chipper 22-year-old. She returned, dragging herself into the news conference, a weary, bedraggled woman, despite her victory. She looked as if she had been squeezed through one of those old washing-machine wringers.

“She played slice, spin, she hit the ball [hard], she start to hit the ball,” Myskina said. “I didn’t know what to expect from her today.”

Myskina said she would be happy to play Henin-Hardenne because there would be at least a measure of predictability to the pace. She said she almost succumbed to the drain of playing junkball for more than two hours.

“I was so tired,” she said. “I just lost my concentration. There was no energy left to play. But then, I realized that I play to go to the semifinals, so maybe I should fight.”

And she did, winning the last three games of the final set to end her two-hour-plus nightmare.

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Featured Matches

Today at the Pacific Life Open, Indian Wells Tennis Garden:

SINGLES, Stadium court, noon

* Lindsay Davenport vs. Nathalie Dechy, France

2 p.m.

* Tim Henman, Britain, vs. Andy Roddick

* Irakli Labadze, Georgia, vs. James Blake

6:30 p.m.

* Justine Henin-Hardenne, Belgium, vs. Anastasia Myskina, Russia